1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a knife grinder or a knife sharpener, and more particularly to a knife sharpener having a knife blade cutting edge protective structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various kinds of typical knife sharpeners, particularly typical electrical knife sharpening facilities or devices have been developed for easily and quickly sharpening or grinding the cutting edges of the knife blades, and comprise one or more sharpening or grinding wheels rotatably secured in a housing and each having one or more abrading surfaces for sharpening or grinding the cutting edges of the knife blades.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,399 to Friel, U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,789 to Rees et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,262 to Lii, U.S. Pat. No. 6,012,971 to Friel, Sr. et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 6,071,181 to Wightman et al. disclose five of the typical electrical knife sharpening facilities or devices, and each comprises one or more rotatable sharpening or grinding wheels each having one or more abrading surfaces for sharpening or grinding the cutting edges of the knife blades.
The housing for rotatably receiving the sharpening or grinding wheels includes one or more access slots formed or defined by one or more blade guide surfaces, for receiving and guiding the knife blades through the sharpening or grinding wheels, and thus for allowing the knife blades to be suitably sharpened or honed by the sharpening or grinding wheels.
While sharpening or grinding the knife blades, the knife blades are required to be engaged into and passed through the access slots of the housing a suitable number of times, in order to repeat sharpening or grinding the knife blades several times before the knife blades may be suitably sharpened or honed.
However, the access slots of the housing normally include a sharp corner or end formed or defined by the blade guide surfaces. After the knife blades have been sharpened or honed by the sharpening or grinding wheels, the sharpened or honed cutting edges of the knife blades may be moved through the sharp corners or ends of the access slots of the housing, and will be engaged with the blade guide surfaces of the housing.
Accordingly, before completely sharpening or honing the knife blades and before the knife blades are removed from the housing, the cutting edges of the knife blades that have just been honed or sharpened by the sharpening or grinding wheels may thus be caused or moved to be engaged with the blade guide surfaces of the housing, when the sharpened or honed cutting edges of the knife blades are moved through and engaged with the blade guide surfaces of the housing, such that the sharpened or honed cutting edges of the knife blades may be blunted by the blade guide surfaces of the housing again.
The typical electrical knife sharpening facilities or devices do not provide any protective structure to protect and to prevent the cutting edge of the knife blade from being blunted after grinding or sharpening processes.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages of the conventional knife sharpening devices.